we need to send our money from our bank account in england to cyprus, is it best to transfer it to our sterling account then on into our cypriot account or send it direct to our cypriot account any info would be most helpful.

Hi Brian, I normally send it in sterling to our sterling account in BoC, paying all charges from my UK account. Then, hopefully, I convert it into the Cy£ account when the rate is good. This does not always work out! Others may be able to tell you a cheaper way of doing it. BoC allow you to do it over the internet so if it is a good rate of exchange you can do it immediately.

Hi Brian,
I was advised to transfer our money into the sterling account and fax instructions to the Bank to transfer it into the Cyprus account when the 'rate' was good.You will still get stuffed at either end in respect of admin costs.
I am also told there are professional money exchangers who operate out of London that you can deal with.The names escape me so perhaps someone else can help.
Our cash came out to Cyprus in 20K lumps.Barclays charged us £25.00 and the Bank of Cyprus charged us £CYP20.00 in respect of each transaction.
BRING IT OUT IN A SOCK!! Now there is a bottle tester.

Cheers,
Campbell.

_________________Campbell in Newcastle/Tyne.Hope to be in Kapparis by August 2006.

I send a cheque from my uk account direct to my Cyprus GBP account.
Then transfer the money directly into my CYP account whn I need it with Hellenic.
The charges are only from Hellenic and they are 60c if i remember correctly.

I was always told that you can get a better exchange rate in Cyprus than in the UK. In order to test this you would have to check both ends at pretty much the same time. Choose your sum in either GBP or CYP and ask what you would get for it and check for any charges.
Personally I found Moneycorp in the UK to be very competitive but I always checked them against at least one other company over here before committing. You can push them a bit or tell them to call you if the rate improves - you can set a level. Of course the rate can go against you while you wait. Their web site has a handy bar scrolling across where you can see the middle rate at a glance. You may get 0.6 or 0.7 below this but you can check it easilly as often as you like. They charge £15 transfer, whereas some don't - but if their rate is better it's soon covered. I never did check the rate in Cyprus, to compare, but wish I had.
Gary

Hi,
Still think you should compare one with another. I personally found Moneycorp rates were better than Sterling Exchange but I am registered with and have used both in the last twelve months. Good Luck.
Gary

If you have a large amount, I would always exchange it through a currency dealer. We are registered with four. Each day for months prior to exchanging our dosh, I contacted them and kept a chart of the exchange rates being offered both by the exchange dealers and 4 leading Cypriot banks. From this chart, one company were consistent with good rates. Although the exchange rates change constantly throughout the day, we were phoned direct with the new rate should it be near to what we were looking for. Eventually, we exchanged with one of the dealers for a good rate and saved hundreds.

I have also been told that when exchanging large amounts, you should ask for a commercial rate if possible? We did try with the Laiki who refused to do this so back to the drawing board.

For smaller amounts, we have a CYP current account with the Laiki and our Sterling account. When we visit, we pay a cheque in direct, the fee is about £12 in total and takes 2 weeks to clear. However, if the amount is over £3,000 GPB, it will take 4 weeks so we were advised to make out several cheques, none over the £3k limit.

Hope this helps? If you wish to know the name of our currency dealer who we eventually exchanged with (on several occasions), e-mail me off board.

You have to give this a try its a website called currencyfinder.co.uk you send off 1 form and they contact all the companies in the uk who provide currency to get you the best rate. I did it instead of opening accounts with loads of companies. oh and they also have other sections aswell like shipping, property insurance etc. infact its kind of like confused.com anyway its worth a try if it can save you money.

We sent to our Hellenic Bank Stirling account and switched it to our CYP account when the rate was favourable. Not saying this is the best but it worked for us. Now when we visit we never change money before we go, we just take a cheque or cash with us, pay it into out GBP account and use a debit card whilst there...

Remember the cheque takes a while to clear so we always leave enough cleared funds in the account to get us through a few days on our next visit.

As I keep on an eye on the exchange rates all the day through, I think I could offer some light on basic problems and questions:

1. Why Sterling account?
Before Cyprus was in EU, this was obligatory and in some ways it's a reminder from those times.
Before Currency Brokers (like us) started their services for individuals, the best exchange rates were always available in Cyprus (as supposed to UK).

2. The problems with Sterling accounts are:
a) You need to pay the transfer fee from UK to Cyprus
b) You normally need to pay intermediate bank fees (up to 40CYP)
c) You could be paying receive costs (percentage / set fee) for your bank to put the GBP to your account.
d) The interest can be less than you would be getting when your funds are in savings account in UK.
e) Should you wish to move the Sterling funds back to Cyprus because the sale didn’t go through etc. you can double all charges.
f) If you transferred your funds via cheque (which can clear free of charge) did you ever calculate the loss in interest over the 22 banking days it takes to clear?

This all is before you could even agree to an exchange what ever the exchange rate was on the internet upon the time you wanted to send your funds to Cyprus.

3. Agreeing to an exchange with your bank.
When you finally have all your Sterling in your bank account in Cyprus, it’s time to agree on the exchange.
1. The exchange rate shown on the website is applicable to only amounts under (12 000–) 20 000CYP (depending on your banks rules) anything over that they will have to check with the treasury. The exchange rate offered is not inclusive of the fees, commission (0.4% - 1%), so your REAL exchange rate is different to what you are quoted.

Hi there......I use Sterling exchange also, if Kevin is not around, anyone there will sort it out for you......its all very simple, open and account online....just type in google search engine, ie... currency rate, ie CYP to £... they always the mid market rate at that time....( the rate the banks deal with each other...).........so be keeping an eye out daily you can see, the rate, ...you wont get that rate, but depending on the amount you will get near it....pick up the phone, sterling will offer you a rate there and then.....you decide if its good....say yes...the rates fixed....send them a cheque .... ( to arrive within 7 days ).....your rate is fixed....when your cheque clears.....then will send to you bank in Cyprus....within 24 hours...( no charges normally ).........in hurry you can use, electronic banking...BACS etc....your bank in the uk will charge about £20 for this service though.......if the amount you are sending is a decent sum, ask Sterling and quite they will tell you to knock the £20 of the cheque.....they do provide and excelent service............PS there is the odd shop in Paphos than can beat the rate, by anyone on the day.....not buy at but they can beat it..... ( they dont actually make any money on the currency they exchange, but what they make is the 30 or 40 % on the goods you happen to buy in the shop........very clever really....thats why shops tucked out of the way offer the best rates......... Richard & Dor

Ref Post #13
Hello Nana, if you had transferred GB£5000 from Lloyds Bank to my Cypriot account with BoC, yesterday morning (20/07/2006), how much would I have actually received in Cyprus, and what extras would I have been charged?
Having read all of the above I would like some facts in order to do some comparisons. Do I have to pay to register with you? How much notice would you need to make the transfer, and how would I get the GB£5000 to you? Thank you.

Hi Jim,
I have emailed you with more detailed answer, but to clarify the basic thing without too much advertising –
1. Opening a trading account with us is free
2. The exchange rate is quoted based on live rates at the exact time of agreeing to an exchange
3. The time schedule is also agreed based on your requirements upon agreeing to an exchange – it can be instant or we can even fix the exchange rate for future
4. All funds are transferred from bank to bank

Hello Nana, I am Jenifer i see your all service it good so i like if you had transferred my GB£44000 from Lloyds Bank to my Cypriot account with BoC, tomorrow morning (19/12/2007), how much would I have actually received in Cyprus, and what extras would I have been charged? I am currently using Western Union to transfer my money.
Thank you.

I attended a Moneycorp presentation in Larnaka last night. I have to say, the majority of the 50-strong audience, did not appear terribly impressed with matters. We had all come along, I imagine, to see if we could reduce the exchange fees for our regular pension payments from UK.

A number of people on this thread seem to have used Moneycorp for 'one-off' or occasional money transfers to Cyprus. Does anybody use, or has anybody used them in the past, for regular, monthly transfers like UK pension payments? If so, do you have any comment on the exchange savings, good or bad?

Hi Dagwood, we were also going to the same seminar last night but we gave it a miss.
I see that I should have updated this thread in July 2006. Sorry all, but here goes:

1. You have to register with any of the money transfer organisations which really means going there in person with your passport etc. (all this is because of money laundering laws.) This also means that you cannot immediately use their services so it is better to contact them first and register so that you can transfer as and when you want. You can, of course transfer at the time you register. You can register with as many firms as you want, and choose the best rate at the time.

2. We registered with Nana of 'Currency Solutions' only as we found this to be the best (in our opinion) one.

3. Since then we have used her on many occasions, but not for 'regular' transfers as we like to choose when we want to transfer, and check the rate.

3. It is a simple matter to transfer once registered, but it entails a phone call to get the rate at the time, and then confirmation by email or FAX.